Make a postcard or other piece of art that visualizes the importance of wages that New Yorkers can live on.

Art will be exhibited at the April 15th kickoff party of our new living wage campaign.

Bring your fabulous postcard to the event or make one when you arrive! Send submissions to the below address if you would like to submit art but cannot attend the party.

This art exhibit and the party on April 15th is hosted by Common Threads Art Collective. The collective is part of the Retail Action Project (RAP), an organization that supports retail workers in NYC.

Kickoff Party Details:
Thursday, April 15th, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Judson Memorial Church – Assembly Hall
239 Thompson Street
New York, NY, 10012

Contact:
Retail Action Project
30 East 29th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10016

212-684-5381 / commonthreadsart@gmail.com

"For decades the retail sector has been a free-fire zone of worker abuse. We applaud the Attorney General for this arrest, which puts merchants on notice that New Yorkers have zero tolerance for employer lawlessness," said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). "This gives our fight for ending wage theft and securing a living wage for retail workers a real boost."

David Cohen, who owns Mystique Boutique and its sister stores Amsterdam, Madness and Exstaza, was charged with criminal and civil counts that include falsifying business records, criminal retaliation, witness tampering and failure to pay wages. The Attorney General is seeking over $1.5 million in damages.

“We want retailers to know that those who violate wage and hour laws are not welcome in our community,” said Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).

The arrest follows a March of Hearts against wage theft that took place on Feb. 3, in which hundreds of retail workers joined RAP for a march up Broadway to demand millions of dollars in stolen wages from Mystique and two nearby retail chains—Shoe Mania and Scoop NYC.

Prior to the investigation, most of the workers at the Mystique stores knew that something fishy was going on, yet they were not aware that there were ways they could assert their rights until they got involved with RAP. RAP organizers directed them to the Attorney General's office.

“We knew what was going on, but we didn’t think there was anything we could do about it,” said Carolina Rodriguez, former employee at Madness Boutique who typically worked for 10 hours per day, six days a week, and was never compensated for overtime. “We didn’t know that the law was on our side.”

Many workers like Rodriguez had suspected that they weren’t being paid properly, and when they met with RAP organizers they discovered that the company had been violating minimum wage and overtime laws for at least six years. Many workers have reported putting in 66-hour weeks without overtime pay and working for as little as $5.15 per hour, $2.10 below the federal and state minimum wage.

Sadiq Nukunu worked for the company for two years and said that he was paid a flat fee of $340 to work from opening to closing for six days a week—a total of 66 hours a week. That fee worked out to be less than the minimum wage, and he was never paid a dime in overtime. “There’s so much pressure in there that you feel like you have no choice, that you’ll never get a job anywhere else,” said Nukunu. “They make you feel like you should be grateful that they gave you a job, but they really are taking advantage of you.”

As if stealing from their workers wasn’t bad enough, many workers reported that Mystique management created a hostile work environment in which workers were afraid to speak up. Even worse, after David Cohen found out about the Attorney General’s investigation he began to intimidate workers through interrogations, firings and threats. He even attempted to bribe one worker with $50,000.

"David Cohen's actions are a disgrace to all the law-abiding retail workers in New York," said Phil Andrews, an organizer with RAP. "But today's arrest proves that we are one step closer to achieving workers' rights and living wages in New York City."

Customer service professional Carrie Nathan, a long-time Macy’s employee and RWDSU member, led the workshop. Carrie kept the class fun and interesting by sharing stories from her experience at Macy’s, facilitating role-play exercises, and inviting workshop participants to share their stories as both customers and retail workers. Her students learned the ins and outs of excellent customer service, including the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, teamwork in the workplace, listening to customers’ needs, and how to handle unruly customers and complaints.

The Customer Service Training also included an important segment on workers’ rights, hosted by RAP Coordinators Stephanie Basile and Pete Montalbano. Students formed teams in a trivia-style competition to test their knowledge on the legal rights that workers have in New York. Attendees then received a Retail Workers’ Survival Guide filled with important information about minimum-wage, overtime, and other labor laws.

The Customer Service Training is a joint effort sponsored by the Retail Action Project, the Consortium for Worker Education, and the Small Business Development Center of LaGuardia Community College.